Spring 2027

Engineering Principles for Biological Systems

Engineering Principles for Biological Systems applies mass/energy balances, psychrometrics, and fluid flow to grain, food, animal housing, and environmental control problems.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Troy Runge

Homework was noted as easy to hard depending on the term, often requiring the use of EES software. Some exams were take-home, and the overall material was described as basic.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the definitions and relationships between material properties of biological materials, such as bulk density, moisture content, and porosity.

  • Employ dimensional analysis to check the correctness of physical relations and to convert the value of a physical quantity in one system to the value in another.

  • Describe the definitions and relationships among the thermodynamic properties such as internal energy, enthalpy, and entropy for pure materials and air-water mixtures.

  • Employ energy and material balances in the analysis of batch and continuous as well as reactive and nonreactive processes.

  • Use psychometric charts to design heating, cooling, and drying systems for biological materials.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

MATH 217 or 221

BSE 249 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JESSICA DREWRY is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TROY RUNGE is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Troy Runge

Students described lectures as often disorganized, with mixed feedback on engagement. Exams were generally considered fair and manageable if practice problems were completed.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.24 GPA, 6.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.67 GPA, 6.4% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.32 GPA, 13.6% A/AB (n=44 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Troy Runge

Homework was noted as easy to hard depending on the term, often requiring the use of EES software. Some exams were take-home, and the overall material was described as basic.

Past student reviews · Troy Runge

Students reported that instructors were often approachable and willing to help with clarifications. However, some found lectures difficult to follow, making self-study or TA assistance necessary for understanding.

Topics

  • Mass and energy balances, psychrometric heat and mass transfer, and fluid flow.
  • Grain conditioning, fruit and vegetable storage, food processing, animal housing, and environmental control.
  • Thermodynamic properties (internal energy, enthalpy, entropy) for pure materials and air-water mixtures.

Skills

  • Apply mass and energy balances, psychrometric heat and mass transfer, and fluid flow principles to agricultural and biological systems.
  • Define and relate material properties of biological materials, including bulk density, moisture content, and porosity.
  • Use dimensional analysis to verify physical relations and convert quantities between unit systems.
  • Perform energy and material balance analyses for batch, continuous, reactive, and nonreactive processes.
  • Design heating, cooling, and drying systems for biological materials using psychrometric charts.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0e8e0b6954ba57873a89c6fdcda42a050acb984b057e5d8ba09647923d264722",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}